Reunion and One Name Studies

[Jane Davies]

Keith: I thought I'd start a new thread as we seem to have drifted a bit off topic so this is a continuation of our conversation from:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=7892

The other Filemaker database that I have is a general index of all occurrences of Rippingales that I come across in the records. Again many thanks to another member of GOONS and Reunion user Nick Michael who sent me copies of his setup. My index is an exact replica of his with the fields arranged slightly differently. It contains basic information, such as birth, marriage and death dates, location, spouse(s) & parents names. It also gives each person a unique number, which I use as the basis of my UserID system in Reunion. The other part of the user ID is a generation letter, again, suggested by Nick, which I've found absolutely invaluable in trying to spot family connections.
See: http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=6019

Nick's more general database sounds really interesting as well and i'd really like to know a little more about this to see how it compares to my own Filemaker BMD database. My own version is of great use to me as it allows me to colour code by gender with sorts by, name, date, Maiden name, location, gender etc. Sorting and filtering really seem to make the data pop out.

I think Filemaker is incredibly powerful but I don't always find it particularly intuitive and I find unless I spend a lot of time with it I tend to forget things quickly. However I am encouraged by what I have seen from other users and really need to look to putting it to more use in my genealogy. These kind of databases are such a help when researching a One-Name study in particular.

Keith

My index is very similar to yours except that I include a few more fields. Nick Michael sent me an example of his Laidman database. I gratefully adopted this, so the setup is almost exactly the same as his. I've included a couple of screen shots - 1 in table view, which will probably look like a blur, and then one in form view where you should be able to see the idea more clearly. I tend to use the form view to add data: it's easier to find the appropriate field.

Like you, whenever I want to tweak my Filemaker databases, I have to haul out the 2" thick manual but I'm always glad that I make the effort!

Jane

[Keith Bage]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Hi Jane,

I think we are using our databases slightly differently. Looking at yours you seem to be recording ALL information (birth, baptism, burial etc) on a specific individual within one record, whereas my database is really a number of vital record sets (currently only Births, Marriages and Deaths).

Where I find Filemaker of great use is in the way I can sort, search and subtotal the various record sets to help build family units i.e. Sorting and subtotalling births by mothers Maiden name.

[Reeds Family]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Hi,

I'm just beginning my one name study and so far have 1,806 individuals entered into the same family file in Reunion.

I am just now finding the need to be able to keep track of these people and how they may or may not be related to one another.

I read that Filemaker is the preferred database being used for this and was wondering if you could advise of a similar free alternative as Filemaker is much too expensive for me to purchase.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yvonne

[Jane Davies]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Hi Jane,

I think we are using our databases slightly differently.

Where I find Filemaker of great use is in the way I can sort, search and subtotal the various record sets to help build family units i.e. Sorting and subtotalling births by mothers Maiden name.

Actually, Keith, I think we're using them in the same way - it's just that I have a few more fields to search on.
I put all occurrences I find of Rippingales into my index. If these fall into a family group - and by this I mean I have more than one piece of data for them eg a marriage & a death - than I will add them to Reunion as well as the index. If I have only one piece of data eg a marriage OR a death, then they go into the index only.
To put these singletons into family groups, I use the search capabilities of Filemaker as you do. Although Reunion has the best search facility of any genealogy programme that I've come across, it doesn't have the sophistication of Filemaker.

Jane

[Keith Bage]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Hi,

I'm just beginning my one name study and so far have 1,806 individuals entered into the same family file in Reunion.

I am just now finding the need to be able to keep track of these people and how they may or may not be related to one another.

I read that Filemaker is the preferred database being used for this and was wondering if you could advise of a similar free alternative as Filemaker is much too expensive for me to purchase.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yvonne

Yvonne,

Have a look at Bento which is related to Filemaker and is much user friendlier and cheaper to use. Filemaker itself is great and very powerful but has a very large learning curve especially if your not familiar with the concepts of relational databases. Bento is less powerful but strips away a lot of the complexity.

Many One-namers simply make use of spreadsheets for this kind of data but this is far less flexible than a database in terms of search & reporting capabilities. Also it is far too easy to erase or corrupt your data in a spreadsheet.

[Reeds Family]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Thanks for your reply Keith. I am not familiar at all with relational databases and looking at Bento see that it also costs, but far less at US$49.

For now I think I will opt for the use of spreadsheets which I have already and at least am somewhat familiar with.

I appreciate your help.

Yvonne

[Bowes Researcher]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Just want to say Hi here. I just recently purchased reunion for my ONS family tree building. I am very pleased with it so far!!!

Do you know if many other ONS folks are using Reunion than the three of you?

Martha Bowes

[Keith Bage]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Just want to say Hi here. I just recently purchased reunion for my ONS family tree building. I am very pleased with it so far!!!

Do you know if many other ONS folks are using Reunion than the three of you?

Martha Bowes

Hi Martha,

Glad your enjoying Reunion 10, it really is an excellent choice. I think there might be one or two others on the the forum here and a few more on the Guild's forum, but my experience is that the majority of folks are still PC based, sadly.

[Allsop]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Hi Jane & Keith,
I have been following this thread and the previous one with interest and you two are inspiring me to begin a one-name study not so much on my own surname, but on my Grandmother's

[Kaye Saunders]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Do you know if many other ONS folks are using Reunion than the three of you?

Hi Martha

While I have used it for my general family tree for many years I have just started using it to record all those with the Livingston(e) name in New Zealand - so it's not a ONS in totality - although it could end up going that way.

[Keith Bage]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

[QUOTE=Allsop;35320]Hi Jane & Keith,
I have been following this thread and the previous one with interest and you two are inspiring me to begin a one-name study not so much on my own surname, but on my Grandmother's

[Allsop]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Thank you Keith for your excellent advice, it has given me food for thought! I had already checked out the Find My Past and Ancestry sites to get an idea of the scale of the project and that doesn't deter me, but even having this I really have no idea what amount of time is involved and at what stage I should register the surname Fair with the Guild, (I see it is not registered as yet)

[Keith Bage]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

[QUOTE=Allsop;35331]Thank you Keith for your excellent advice, it has given me food for thought! I had already checked out the Find My Past and Ancestry sites to get an idea of the scale of the project and that doesn't deter me, but even having this I really have no idea what amount of time is involved and at what stage I should register the surname Fair with the Guild, (I see it is not registered as yet)

[Jane Davies]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

[QUOTE=Allsop;35320]Hi Jane & Keith,
I have been following this thread and the previous one with interest and you two are inspiring me to begin a one-name study not so much on my own surname, but on my Grandmother's

[Michael Rosenkötter]

Re: Reunion and One Name Studies

Just want to say Hi here. I just recently purchased reunion for my ONS family tree building. I am very pleased with it so far!!!

Do you know if many other ONS folks are using Reunion than the three of you?

Martha Bowes

I am rsearching my own family, the Rosenkoetter/Rosencutter etc. But I also do an ONS on the following names: Petersilie/Petersilge/Petroselinus/Petrosilius and several variants of these names; Sutro; and W